Tar Mosaics of Moonstone Beach

Oil and water do not mix.  But one thing water does is facilitate the mixture of oil (or some form of it like tar) and some other substance available in the near vicinity.  Anywhere in the coast of Central California, one will see patches of tar was ashore.  Yes, there is oil off the California coast and all one needs to do is look out in the water and count the offshore oil rigs that dot the western horizon.  There's tar as far south as the beaches of Ventura but I took these photos at Moonstone Beach in Cambria.  I found these mosaics very interesting and what I was looking at are works of art created by random processes of nature.  These are in the truest sense, very temporary installation that will soon wash away at the next high tide.  At which point, it's time to make new one.

I Remember Clifford Brown

He only lived 25 years.  Car crash on the way to Chicago from Philadelphia.  In some parallel universe, Clifford Brown lived another 50 years to make music and Miles Davis will always be compared to the man known as Brownie.  What's really eerie about this is when Clifford died in 1956, another great American artist, Jackson Pollock also died in a car crash that same year.  And when my 12 year old son, who had never heard any of Clifford's music says he likes this kind of jazz, you know the music is something special.  It had been a good music week when I found these two Clifford Brown CDs at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo.  His first release Memorial Album (1953, Blue Note) and his last one, At Basin Street (1956, Verve) both kept me company during the drive back to Rancho Cucamonga yesterday afternoon.  Music this good is like a drug that opens up your mind.  Unfortunately, it is in limited supply as Clifford only released 4 years worth of music.

Speaking of Boo Boo Records, no visit to SLO is complete without a stopover.  Here's a nice article in Record Collector News.

http://recordcollectornews.com/2012/11/boo-boo-records/

Bubble Gum Art

Our annual post-Christmas trip to the Central Coast always includes a stop over at Bubble Gum Alley in San Luis Obispo, just between Higuera and Marsh.  I always find something new in the alley and this one (above) is one of the best I've seen in a while.  On a 35-mm negative is the word "ART" spelled out just above a miniature origami -- yes, just like Gaff from Blade Runner!

Funny Quote

“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring.”

-Desmond Tutu

Time

It's been about 10 years since I last wore a wristwatch regularly.  A month ago, I started wearing one again but the strangest thing is I recall looking at it to check the time maybe once a day -- at most.  Why? Too many other devices around me that tell me the time? Maybe, I have this internal clock that gives me a rough idea of the time.  The pragmatist in me says if I don't use it, I don't need it.

Speaking of time, the current issue of National Geographic poses the question of how long it would take mankind (using current technology) to travel to the nearest star Proxima Centauri.  It could really mess up your mind if you think at that scale.  17,000 years.  Given this, I think we're forever (in relative human timescale) confined to our solar system.  If ignorance is bliss, it would have been better if we didn't know of the theoretical limit of the speed of light.  Damn these physicists.

Corona Del Mar Sunrise

The price of having to take one of the kids to a diving certification class at Corona Del Mar Beach includes having to wake up at 6am on a Saturday to do the 55 mile drive from home.  Thank goodness I brought my point-and-shoot to capture the sunrise on this 2nd day of winter in Southern California.

The only thing I wished for this morning (besides being on my bike riding on PCH) is maybe be on a kayak in the Newport marina.  Being on the beach this close to Christmas is probably most ideal since all the tourists are gone by now and all the locals are way too busy elbowing each other at the mall.

Blues for Smoke (2012)

I must be getting old.  For the first time in a long time, I went to MOCA and really had trouble absorbing what on earth was in front of me.  I scoured gallery after gallery of seemingly disjointed themes, media, messages and eras.  Some of the stuff is disturbing in a foreign way -- the rest of the country is exposed to the plight of black people in this country based on what mass media chooses to show and on what message the powers at be want you and I to hear.  Some of the work is equally depressing depending on what your context is in life.  I suppose I went in to the Geffen today thinking a typical afternoon of modern, uplifting art and after I add in the hour I spent going through Taryn Simon's "A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters, I-XVII", my mental state was pretty down.  The work is brilliant but I guess I'm just not in any mood to think about serious stuff today.  The holiday season is hard enough as it is and a barrage of blues in visual and audio form is a little too much.